Printable Tournament BracketLinfield is headed to California to play in the NCAA Division III regional playoffs. The Wildcats were selected to compete in a three-team regional hosted by the University of Redlands.

Action starts Friday with Linfield meeting Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (28-13) in the regional's opening game at 11 a.m. Next, SCIAC regular-season champion Redlands (30-13) faces rival CMS at 1:30 p.m. Linfield and Redlands square off in the day's third game at 4 o'clock. Saturday's schedule features a championship game at noon, and a second game, if necessary, at 2:30.

Linfield secured its 11th straight Northwest Conference title and followed it by winning the NWC Tournament three weeks ago to lock up the NWC's automatic playoff berth to the NCAA tournament. Linfield is the only NWC softball program to receive a postseason invitation.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps defeated Redlands 11-0 in five innings Saturday at UR's Field of Dreams to claim the SCIAC Tournament title and the conference's automatic NCAA berth. The two longtime softball rivals have battled seven times this season with Redlands winning five of those.

The NCAA selection committee announced the 62-team Division III playoff field Monday morning as part of a streamed selection show on NCAA.com.

Using a new championship playoff bracket this spring that mirrors the Division I model, there are 14 four-team regional sites, and two three-team regional sites. Sixteen teams advance from regionals to compete in two-team, best-of-three playoffs at eight super regional sites May 16-17. The eight advancing teams from the super regionals move on to the NCAA finals, May 22-27, at Tyler, Texas. A double-elimination format will also be used there, and the last two teams left standing will face off in a best-of-three series to determine the national champion.

In the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, Linfield is ranked No. 3 while Redlands is 20th. CMS is unranked.

Live video and live statistics will be available for all games and accessible via links on the Linfield Athletics home page.